Hunger Panel Meets Kenyan Anglicans
Episcopal News Service. May 16, 1985 [85108]
Ruth Nicastro, Diocese of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (DPS, May 16) - The Episcopal Church's National Hunger Committee met here with 10 development officers from the Church in the Province of Kenya to explore models of development education which might work in both counties.
The late-April conference was sponsored jointly by the Hunger and Overseas Development Offices of the Episcopal Church Center and the Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief.
Led by Carmen Hunter of New York and Mary Beth Peters of New Mexico, the conference agreed to define development education as a process that seeks: to increase awareness of the root causes and the extent of human suffering due to poverty, hunger and disease; to deepen understanding of personal involvement in both the causes and the benefits of poverty and of change; and to promote actions to achieve justice, equity and hope in an interdependent world.
Working in small groups, the participants set out specific plans for training sessions which would help people in their own communities understand this definition and be moved to action. The models were then shared with, and refined by, the whole group in discussion.
The meeting was held to take advantage of the Kenyans' presence at the African Studies Development Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles. It was the final event in a crowded threemonth schedule during which the recently appointed development officers have been learning new ways of training their diocesan constituencies to become involved in much-needed development projects in Kenya.
During their residence, the Kenyans have also spoken to several parishes in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and have been participants in an international development consultation sponsored by the Anglican Consultative Council, which set forth certain principles and definitions for church-sponsored development projects as recommendations for the Anglican Communion.
The Kenyans' training program was enabled by the Presiding Bishops' Fund, which is co-sponsor of the Development Institute. Each of them has now returned to administer development projects and training in his or her diocese.
Both the Kenyan and the American participants agreed that the conference's principal benefit was the opportunity for interchange of ideas and experiences from very different cultures.
In addition to the Kenyans, participants included: Province I, The Rev. Terry L. Henry; Province II, The Rev. Perry Winterrowd; Province III, The Rev. Canon Peter A. Greenfield; Province IV, Ms. Bets Borries; Province V, Rita Wolf; Province VI, Barbara Roark; Province VII, Lynne Hooper; Province VIII, Margot Miller; Province IX, The Rt. Rev. Leopoldo Frade; Members at Large, The Rt. Rev. David B. Birney, IV and Hannah Atkins. Also, Dr. David E. Crean, staff officer for Hunger; Pat Pearson, recording secretary; The Rev. Dr. Samuel D'Amico of the Presiding Bishop's Fund; The Rev. Steve Comnins of the Institute and Barbara Volker, Western Massachusetts Hunger Information Action Center.